Do you know your Credit Score?
A quick glance at your credit score gives lenders most of the information they need to make judgments about a customer's repayment capacity. It's a grading system that adds or subtracts points based on certain criteria. Late payments and several open credit cards with high balances, for example, decrease your score. On the other hand, a solid payment history increases your score. A good score is generally over 720. But in today's up and down economy, that level keeps increasing. Keep in mind that a good score today may only be an acceptable score in the future. That's why it's important to know and maintain your credit score.
There are several ways you can get your score. If you are denied a loan due to your credit score, the lender will provide specific reasons why you were denied credit and how to obtain a copy of your complete credit report at no charge if you request the report within 60 days of reciving the notice of denial.
A better way, though, is to manage your credit score upfront. While there are a number of websites that provide you a credit report for a fee, www.annualcreditreport.com allows you to pull your report for free once a year (to get your score, there is a cost). This site - www.creditkarma.com - is another great site that not only allows you to pull your score as frequently as you like, it also gives you useful tips to manage your score.
Like it or not, most banks - including Farm Credit - rely on your credit score as a part of the lending decision. In fact, over 62% of our loans are scored loans - the other 38% are reviewed using more detailed credit underwriting guidelines. Generally, most scored loans at Farm Credit are smaller loans or those under $250,000 - scored loans only represent a little over one-third of our total loan volume. Additionally, we do not rely on credit score alone in many cases. Our underwriters usually suppliment the credit score with other customer financial information and documentation.
Here are a couple websites with detailed information about credit scoring you might find useful.
About Farm Credit Services of Mid-America
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